Chapter 8 Configuring The Xml Interface; Information About Xml - Cisco 4700M Administration Manual

Configuring the XML Interface
This chapter describes how to use Extensible Markup Language (XML) to remotely configure a Cisco
4700 Series Application Control Engine (ACE) appliance from a network management station (NMS).
You can transmit, exchange, and interpret data among the applications.
This chapter contains the following major sections:
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Information About XML

Web services provide network-based software applications that use XML to transmit, exchange, and
interpret data among applications that would otherwise have difficulty interoperating together.
XML provides an application-independent way of sharing data between computer systems. Similar to
HTML, XML consists of text delimited by tags so it is easily conveyed over the Internet. In XML, the
tags define the meaning and structure of the information, enabling computer applications to use the
information directly. Unlike HTML, XML tags identify the data, rather than specifying how to display
it. An XML tag acts like a field name in your program; it puts a label on a piece of data that identifies it
(for example: <message>...</message>).
An XML document that contains configuration commands and output results is easily transformed
between the devices by using standard Internet protocols. A network management station (NMS), such
as the CiscoWorks Hosting Solution Engine (HSE), can connect to the ACE and push new configurations
to it over HTTP or secure HTTP (HTTPS). Any command that you can configure from the ACE CLI can
be configured remotely from a NMS by exchanging XML documents over HTTP or HTTPS.
The XML application programming interface (API) allows you to automate the programmatic
configuration of the ACE by using a Document Type Definition (DTD). The XML format is a translation
of the CLI commands into an equivalent XML syntax. Each ACE CLI command has anequivalent XML
tag, and all of the parameters of the CLI command are attributes of that element. The ACE uses an
Apache HTTP server to provide the XML management interface and to provide HTTP services between
the ACE and the management client. To use the ACE XML API, you must have the Admin user role.
OL-20823-01
Information About XML
Guidelines and Limitations
Default Settings
Configuring the XML Interface
Displaying or Clearing XML Service Policy Statistics
Clearing XML Service Policy Statistics
Example of ACE CLI Command and the XML Equivalent
Cisco 4700 Series Application Control Engine Appliance Administration Guide
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